Divine Right Quotes

• The state of monarchy is the supremest thing upon earth: for kings are not only God's Lieutenants upon earth, and sit upon God's throne, but even by God himself they are called Gods.

  King James I

  Kings, Thrones, Earth

  Speech to Parliament at Whitehall, March 21, 1609.

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• The people "have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge- I mean of the character and conduct of their rulers."

  John Adams

  Character, Mean, People

  'A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law' (1765)

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• We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts.

  Harold MacMillan

  Kings, Fall, Experts

  1950 Speech, Strasbourg,16 Aug.

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• We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings.

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Kings, Capitalism, Seems

  Ursula K. Le Guin (2016). “Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016, with a Journal of a WriterÕs Week”, p.115, Small Beer Press

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• The divine right of husbands, like the divine right of kings, may, it is hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without danger.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Kings, Husband, Afterlife

  'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman' (1792) ch. 3

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• Divine right of kings means the divine right of anyone who can get uppermost.

  Herbert Spencer

  Kings, Mean, Atheism

  Herbert Spencer (1873). “Social Statics; Or, The Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, & the First of Them Developed”, p.124

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• When a man and a woman have an overwhelming passion for each other, it seems to me, in spite of such obstacles dividing them as parents or husband, that they belong to each other in the name of Nature, and are lovers by Divine right, in spite of human convention or the laws.

  Nicolas Chamfort

  Love, Husband, Passion

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• Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art - the art of words.

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Art, Resistance, Divine Right Of Kings

  Ursula K. Le Guin (2016). “Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016, with a Journal of a WriterÕs Week”, p.115, Small Beer Press

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• Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Changed, Humans, Human Power

  Ursula K. Le Guin (2016). “Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016, with a Journal of a WriterÕs Week”, p.115, Small Beer Press

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• A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins.” Benjamin Franklin

  Benjamin Franklin

  Education, Wisdom, Freedom

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• Till society is very differently constituted, parents, I fear, will still insist on being obeyed because they will be obeyed, and constantly endeavor to settle that power on a divine right which will not bear the investigation of reason.

  Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

  Parent, Bears, Settling

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• Both church and state claiming to be of divine origin have assumed divine right of man over woman; while church and state have thought for man, man has assumed the right to think for woman.

  Matilda Joslyn Gage

  Men, Thinking, Religion

  Matilda Joslyn Gage (1893). “Woman, Church and State: A Historical Account of the Status of Woman Through the Christian Ages: with Reminiscences of Matriarchate”

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• Empires are doomed. They become more diffuse, more broke, demagogues rule, and so I was just pointing out some similarities between past empires and what's going on right now. They all have had to apply more and more harsh rhetoric of superiority and divine right to justify the building of hegemony.

  Dar Williams

  Past, Hegemony, Empires

  Source: progressive.org

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• We admit of no government by divine right, believing that so far as power is concerned the Beneficent Creator has made no distinction amongst men; that all are upon an equality, and that the only legitimate right to govern is an express grant of power from the governed.

  William Henry Harrison

  Believe, Men, Presidential

  David A. Durfee, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, United States. President (1841-1845 : Tyler) (1970). “William Henry Harrison, 1773-1841: John Tyler, 1790-1862; chronology, documents, bibliographical aids”, Oceana Pubns

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• There is no separation in Divine Mind, therefore, I cannot be separated from the love and companionship which are mine by divine right.

  Florence Scovel Shinn

  Mind, Companionship, Separation

  Florence Scovel Shinn (2015). “The Complete Game of Life and How to Play It: The Classic Text with Commentary, Study Questions, Action Items, and Much Mor”, p.57, Hampton Roads Publishing

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• I accept perfect health as the natural state of my being. I now consciously release any mental patterns within me that could express as dis-ease in any way. Perfect health is my Divine right, and I claim it now.

  Louise Hay

  Perfect, Patterns, Way

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• The average mind is slow in grasping a truth, but when the most thoroughly organized, centralized institution, maintained at an excessive national expense, has proven a complete social failure, the dullest must begin to question its right to exist. The time is past when we can be content with our social fabric merely because it is "ordained by divine right," or by the majesty of the law.

  Emma Goldman

  Past, Average, Law

  Emma Goldman (2015). “Anarchism: Top Crime Collections”, p.63, 谷月社

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• Since the early days, [the church] has thrown itself violently against every effort to liberate the body and mind of man. It has been, at all times and everywhere, the habitual and incorrigible defender of bad governments, bad laws, bad social theories, bad institutions. It was, for centuries, an apologist for slavery, as it was an apologist for the divine right of kings.

  H. L. Mencken

  Kings, Men, Law

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• High school is neither a democracy nor a dictatorship - nor, contrary to popular belief, an anarchic state. High school is a divine-right monarchy. And when the queen goes on vacation, things change.

  John Green

  Funny, Senior, Queens

  John Green (2013). “The John Green Collection”, p.489, Penguin

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• Conservatives or better, pro-corporate apologists hijacked the vocabulary of Jeffersonian liberalism and turned words like "progress," "opportunity," and "individualism" into tools for making the plunder of America sound like divine right. This "degenerate and unlovely age," as one historian calls it, exists in the mind of Karl Rove the reputed brain of George W. Bush as the seminal age of inspiration for politics and governance of America today.

  Bill Moyers

  Inspiration, Opportunity, America

  Speech to the "Take Back America" Conference, June 10, 2003.

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• Those in authority within institutions and social structures attempt to justify their rule by linking it, as if it were a necessary consequence, with moral symbols, sacred emblems, or legal formulae which are widely believed and deeply internalized. These central conceptions may refer to a god or gods, the 'votes of the majority,' the 'will of the people,' the 'aristocracy of talents or wealth,' to the 'divine right of kings' or to the alleged extraordinary endowment of the person of the ruler himself.

  C. Wright Mills

  Kings, People, May

  "Character and Social Structure". Book by C. Wright Mills, 1953.

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• Nothing that happened before this moment has any power over you whatsoever, except to the extent to which you carry it into this moment. Dwell in the present with full forgiveness of yourself and others, and your life will be lifted to divine right order...perfection, prosperity and peace.

  Marianne Williamson

  Order, Perfection, Over You

  FaceBook post by Marianne Williamson from Dec 12, 2011

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• The whole world is run on bluff. No race, no nation, no man has any divine right to take advantage of others. Why allow the other fellow to bluff you?

  Marcus Garvey

  Running, Men, Race

  Marcus Garvey (2015). “Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey”, p.10, Ravenio Books

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• The actor doesn't merely command the stage, he seems to own it by divine right.

  Frank Rich

  Actors, Stage, Command

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• You have a divine right to abundance, and if you are anything less than a millionaire, you haven't had your fair share.

  Stuart Wilde

  Abundance, Share, Millionaire

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